Chapter 42: Surprise.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Foster.
AN: As promised, the first of two chapters uploaded for hitting 175 reviews. Please leave lots of reviews. Also, one review said that I should bring back a little drama. What do you guys think? Should I? I mean, I've already sent Jonnor through a hail of bullets (literally), what else can I throw at them? Leave ideas in the reviews.
Connor's POV (May 10th 2022):
Wally had been with us for five months now, and we had had a long day with the family. Wally had finally decided he was ready to be introduced Wally to the rest of our family.
Wally is finally starting to come out of his shell. In the five months he has been with us, he has become a lot more comfortable with us. It took him about a week for us to get him to laugh. After that, we noticed that he got a lot more physically affectionate with us. Always wanting a hug, or cuddling with us on the couch watching movies. He hugged Jude and I for almost a whole minute when we dropped him off for his first day of school at Anchor Beach.
We've learned a lot more about his personality and his interests.
We learned that he had an iron will on his temper, and very rarely lost his temper. The first time he lost his temper in front of us took us completely by surprise. Some homophobe made a nasty comment while we were at the groceries store. Wally grabbed a glass mug and chucked it at the guys head and started screaming. He would have leapt on the guy if Jude and I hadn't had a hold of him.
He was timid around new people, and didn't trust easily, hence why it took so long for him to be ready to meet the rest of the family. The family members he seemed to like the most, besides Stef and Lena, were Mariana, Jesus and his boyfriend Cody. He found Jesus to be hilarious, and enjoyed watching the couple bicker. He enjoyed Mariana's fashion sense and general bubbly attitude.
He was eager to please Jude and I, and was quick to panic if he did something wrong, because he was terrified of doing something wrong and getting sent away. We quickly assured him that that would never happen, and he was starting to believe us.
He liked rock and metal. A lot. He absolutely refused to listen to anything else. He hero worshiped the other members of our band and nearly fainted when we introduced him to Jax, Jeremy, Austin, Castor, and James and Lars for the first time.
Wally had timidly asked if he could come along with us to the studio and watch us record stuff for the next album, and James and Lars were there when we got there. I had never seen somebody's eyes go as wide as Wally's did upon seeing James and Lars. He could not speak a single coherent sentence. When James shook his hand, Wally stared at his hand afterwards in awe.
He loved to play basketball, which prompted us to purchase a basketball hoop and hang it from the garage so we could play in the driveway.
He liked to skateboard, but he wasn't the most skilled at it. He practiced a lot.
We also learned all of his little quirks.
He stuttered sometimes, but it was only prominent when he was nervous or upset.
He loves slushies from Speedway, and he always has two straws.
He could NOT listen to music in the car without singing along. He's actually a good singer. It's interesting to listen to a kid singing along to Metallica and Megadeth tunes.
He falls asleep in the weirdest positions, and can fall asleep listening to heavy metal, as Jude and I found out on his fourth night with us. We went into his room to check on him before we went to bed, and discovered him laying diagonally on his bed with his head hanging over the side, fast asleep with headphones in his ears, with the iPod we had bought him blaring "Hangar 18" by Megadeth, with Minion laying at the foot of his bed. We moved him to a more comfortable position and then went to bed.
If he trusted you, and was in a happy mood, he would jabber on and on about everything. On his third day of school, when Jude and I picked him up from school, he rambled the whole way home about this friend he had made, a boy named Timmy, who Wally had met the first day of school. Timmy had given Justin a tour of the school, and helped him to his classes since they shared an identical schedule.
The parallels with Jude and I's first meeting at Anchor Beach were something that we both found amusing.
When he asked us if Timmy could come over and spend the night for the first time, he was so nervous that he looked like he was going to pass out. When Timmy arrived, Wally ran out onto the driveway to meet him, telling us to wait inside. Two minutes later, the front door slammed open and Timmy ran into the room, with Wally on his back, laughing like crazy. We discovered that he was a very lanky, bubbly red headed boy with boundless amounts of energy, who was almost one whole foot taller than Wally.
The two boys acted like they had known each other their whole lives. They acted like brothers. Timmy was very affectionate, and it was clear as they bickered about music that he adored his younger friend.
Anyway, back to the quirks.
Wally had also started picking up a few of mine and Jude's quirks.
He rolled his jaw when he was nervous or unsure or when his emotions ran high, like I did, and he puts WAY too much syrup on his pancakes like Jude does. He also started to pick up Jude's sassiness.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand. It was the middle of the night, and Jude and I were asleep.
I felt a hand touch my shoulder and give it a small shake.
I jerked awake.
Wally was standing at my side of the bed, and tears were leaking from his eyes. I was awake immediately.
"You okay bubby?" I asked him, concerned.
"I-I had a bad d-dream." He whimpered.
"What was it about?" I asked quietly.
"S-same as u-usual." He muttered.
I sighed and motioned for him to crawl in bed between Jude and I. Wally had a recurring nightmare about his previous foster home. The first couple of times he had it, he didn't tell us. But the third time, the dream changed slightly, and he woke up screaming. He told us tearfully, that e kept dreaming about the night he was removed from the home, when his foster father tried to molest him and that in the dream his foster mother hadn't got their in time to stop it.
Jude jerked awake at feeling Wally crawling beneath us and cuddling up to him. He shot me a questioning look.
"The dream again." I mouthed to him. His eyes saddened in understanding.
We comforted him until he fell asleep, still cuddled close to us, and we fell back asleep too.
We all awoke five and a half hours later, and trudged into the kitchen to have breakfast.
Wally was taking advantage of his new cell phone, and was texting Timmy.
"Hey, Connor, I never did ask..." Jude said, "Did you hear back from your uncle yet?"
I knew immediately what he was talking about. My Uncle Evan, ever our savior, had been trying to get Wally's adoption fast tracked. Yesterday, he had called with news concerning it. Jude and I both knew, but he was bringing it up so we could tell Wally.
"Oh, yeah." I said, "It's set. We go in today. Everybody'll be there waiting for us."
"What's today?" Wally asked, picking up his glass of milk to take a drink.
"Your adoption." Jude said nonchalantly.
Wally's reaction was immediate, and I had just enough time to lunge to the side as his eyes widened and he spat his mouthful of milk across the room. Jude started laughing as I went to clean up the mess.
"Are you guys serious?" Wally asked excitedly.
"You can thank my Uncle for that, little man." I said, "He always pulls through for me."
"OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD!" He screeched and flew at us, wrapping us both in a tight hug, bouncing up in down in ecstatic excitement.
"I gotta call Timmy and tell him!" He exclaimed. He rushed up to us and hugged us both before he bolted towards the doorway.
"Don't be on the phone for too long!" Jude and I hollered after him.
"I KNOW DADS!" Wally hollered from across the house.
Jude and I chuckled, and went back to our breakfast.
We realized at the same instant, what Wally had just said.
I dropped my fork.
Jude and I shared a look.
"Did he just...?" Jude started to ask.
"Yeah, he did." I said, shocked, "He called us dads."
Jude got out of his chair and hugged me tight. He gave me a kiss on the forehead as a tear fell down my cheek.
"I never thought I'd ever get to hear somebody call me that." I said, releasing a teary chuckle.
"Hey dads? Can Timmy come over today?"
We turned around to see Wally standing in the doorway, staring at us worriedly.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, bubby. We're fine." Jude said.
"Then why are crying?" Wally asked, now looking like he was going to cry as well, "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, baby, you did nothing wrong." I assured him, "I'm just emotional is all."
"Is it because I called you two dad?" He asked hurriedly, "Because I didn't mean to make you cry..."
"It's fine Wally." I said, "I'm just really happy that you think of us as your dads."
"Then why are you crying?"
"Sometimes people cry when they're happy." I said, "And right now, I can safely say I've never been happier."
Wally approached us slowly, and wrapped his arms around us. We pulled him into a hug and both place a kiss atop his mop of black hair.
When he pulled away, we grinned at him.
"I'm really lucky to have you two as my Dads." He said, "Can Timmy come to the courthouse with us?"
"Of course he can." Jude said.
Wally quickly flashed off a text to Timmy before turning back to us.
"What should I wear?"
Jude and I chuckled and we followed Wally to his closet.
After spending two hours trying on every single outfit he had, he finally settle on a simple maroon button up, black blazer, black pants, and his dress shoes. He spun around once before posing for us.
"How do I look?" He asked happily.
"Great, now come on." I said with a laugh, "Text Timmy and tell him we'll be there to get him soon."
He did just that, and rushed out to the car before Jude and I could say another word. We shared a look and a laugh before following our soon to be son out to the Aston Martin. Ten minutes later, we pulled up outside Timmy's house to find him standing outside waiting for us. The first thing he did when he got in the car was hug Wally and then they started babbling about something.
Their conversation lasted until we pulled up outside of the courthouse.
It was the same courthouse where Jude's adoption took place.
We all got out of the car and walked inside. Not even two minutes later, we were approached by a court official and led to the courtroom. Wally was bouncing on the balls of his feet as we were ushered into the courtroom. Everybody was already waiting inside. The whole family was in attendance.
"Okay." The judge said, "Mr. and Mr. Adams Foster. Are you willing to raise this child as your lawful child?"
"Yes." Jude said.
"Yes we are." I said, putting my arm around Wally where he stood between us.
"This child will inherit from you. He will be treated no differently than a biological child. Do you agree?"
"Yes." We answered in unison.
The judge nodded and smiled at the three of us softly, before speaking directly to Wally.
"I know you've had a long road to get to today, little one." The judge said, "You've been through terrible things, hardships that would break even the strongest of us adults. But rest assured that that long road has finally come to an end. Everything seems to be in order, so I am ecstatic to sign off on this adoption."
Wally started crying softly as we watched the Judge sign the final papers.
"Congratulations, Jude and Connor." The judge said, "And to you as well, Walter Daniels Adams Foster."
The whole courtroom erupted into cheers as Jude and I pulled a now sobbing Wally into our arms. It wasn't long before we started crying too. The three of us just stood there, unaware of the various cameras flashing around us. All that mattered was me, Jude, and our son.
Our son.
AN: And that's that for this chapter. Again, leave lots of reviews with ideas for drama I could introduce.